The Trickery of the Light
by Faoi Na Realtai
Summary: A continuation of The Subtle Hunger of the Shadows, starting with Tristan's POV.
1. Deception

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or even a Yugioh deck . . .

The Trickery of the Light

"_I can't help you fix yourself__  
><em>_But at least I can say I tried__  
><em>_I'm sorry but I gotta move on with my own life__  
><em>_I can't help you fix yourself__  
><em>_But at least I can say I tried__  
><em>_I'm sorry but I gotta move on with my own life . . ."_

-Papa Roach

It was actually a pretty average day for Tristan. The last few months had been really good for him, even though half a year ago he had lost his best friends. They hadn't all died, but they might as well have. One of them had been killed through neglect, and the bond between the rest had shattered.

Not that he liked to think about it. In fact, he was finding that he actually finding out that he actually did better without them. Maybe Kaiba had been right all along, about their friendship being worthless.

Now that they weren't together:

There was no longer any magic.

There was no longer any danger.

Things were finally, absolutely calm.

Tristan liked it calm. His grades picked up significantly, because he wasn't constantly traveling or distracted by some great Duel Monsters related danger that could destroy the world. He was working on buying a car with money from the job a friend of his got him. He was tied in with the Future Business Leaders Club and the future seemed to be falling into place, instead of being not only vague, but unguaranteed. Tristan couldn't say he missed the feeling that he might not live to see the next day.

Instead, the future seemed bright and assured. Tristan now had dreams for a future as a businessman, dreams far less grand than the adventures he tried to forget. He knew that when he helped save the world, there had been victories and glory, but those had been mainly for Yugi and Joey. He had been the normal one, who risked his life out of friendship more than out of a desire to be a hero. Now he was finding he didn't miss any part of it. The friendship of the FBL came cheaper, and if it wasn't as strong, as least it was safe. You didn't lose friends in a normal middle class neighborhood when magic wasn't involved.

Tristan had always been the most normal of them; now he pretended there was never a "them" at all.

So it was very strange that of all the people Bakura might have gotten ahold of, Tristan was the one he got in touch with.

The phone range right as Tristan was starting up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. He groaned as he got up to get it, thinking it was probably his older sister asking him to babysit her obnoxious son.

Instead, he was greeted with the soft voice of an old friend.

"Hello, Tristan."

"Bakura? How's it going man? It's been a while…," Tristan said.

Bakura replied, "It's been alright. Listen, I have news. Do you know where Atem, Joey and Tea are? I haven't been able to reach them." *

"We had a falling out. I don't know what goes on with those guys anymore."

"Well, then I'll just tell you. There may be a way to bring Yugi back!"

"What!" Tristan exclaimed.

"My father brought back something called the Staff* of Ausar. He told me that there's a legend surrounding it that said it would raise the spirits of the dead in the hands of the Son of Ra, and Yami said it seemed true. Because Atem was a Pharaoh, it should respond to him as the Son of Ra!"

"Oh wow…," Tristan said, but inside he had a sinking feeling. Then he asked, "But how are you going to get it here?"

"My father is sending me. I told him its Yugi's birthday, and he's been in an exceptional mood since the dig."

Tristan paused.

Bakura asked, "Are you okay? You don't seem very happy about this."

Tristan replied, "I'm fine, just soaking it in. I'll let the others know. See you when you get here."

He was lying about being fine. Tristan wasn't okay with this.

Bakura wanted to bring magic back, and that wasn't okay at all. Yugi had been killed by magic, by a being who had claimed to be their friend but then went and stole their real friend's life. The Pharaoh seemed to be suffering – good. Let him suffer. The rest of them could continue on happily, like Yugi would have wanted them to, because Yugi never would have wanted to see his friends risk their lives for him. Tristan would stop Bakura and everything would be fine.

So Tristan agreed to tell the others that Bakura was coming, and they would all meet him in the park to bring Yugi back, but privately planned to take the Staff of Ausar and dump it in a sewer where it belonged, because everything was just fine as it was. Everyone could go on living their lives normally, like they had been. It might seem now like there was no price for getting Yugi back, but in Tristan's experience there was always a price with magic. It wasn't worth it.

.

A couple weeks later, Tristan met Bakura at the park. Bakura was looking around, clearly expecting more people than just Tristan.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"I didn't tell them," Tristan said.

Bakura was shocked. "Why?"

Tristan took a deep breath. "You have no idea what the consequences of messing with that thing might be. It's not worth the risk. Besides, my life is pretty good right now. This would complicate things, and really, I would prefer things just go on as normal."

"What is wrong with you? Yugi was one of your best friends! You were closer to him than I was!"

Tristan shrugged. "Not that close. And I just like how things are right now. You should probably just give the Staff up and leave."

Bakura's features darkened, and Tristan recognized that his yami had come to the surface. Great. More magical dark spirits.

"You dare to make us come all the way here, only to turn us down? This is not your choice mortal. This artifact could free the people of my village from the Puzzle. The Pharaoh **will** hear of this, and he will make right the wrong he has done."

"Not if I can help it," Tristan said.

*It doesn't come into the story, but the reasons Bakura couldn't reach the gang is:

Joey's father forgot to pay the phone bill and they turned the line off.

Atem never answers the phone. Grandpa does, but he was in the hospital to have his gall bladder removed.

And Tea went on vacation early with her family.

Just thought you might like to know. ^^

*Something interesting I found out about staffs are that they're used for guidance, while robs are used for punishment when it comes to sheep. A staff can even be used for pulling a sheep out of a pit, like you might pull a spirit out of the underworld…? So I did make it a staff, rather than an amulet or something, on purpose.

A/N: Hey look, there's a plot, with a cliffhanger and everything! That would be why this is a separate story from The Subtle Hunger of the Shadows. That and the whole point of the first story was the absence of Yugi. I'm not so sure Yugi is going to remain absent though…

Thank you to my lovely reviewers, as always. Especially Drawn2Danger, because you review every chapter, but really, all you guys deserve virtual cookies. You guys rock!

Anyway, let me know what you think!


	2. Redemption

AN: I don't own them, I just use them to work through some of my angst issues. xD

"_For what I've done__  
><em>_I start again__  
><em>_And whatever pain may come__  
><em>_Today this ends__  
><em>_I'm forgiving what I've done!"_

-"What I've Done" by Linkin Park

_Pound. Pound._

_**The beat of the basketball is all absorbing.**_

_Pound. Pound._

_**There's no room left for other thoughts.**_

_Pound. Pound._

_Pound._

"Alright boys, time to hit the lockers!" Coach Mullins yelled. "Go home, get some rest. I'll see you next week."

Joey grimaced as he left the court.

He really didn't want to have to go home, or anywhere else for that matter, because no matter where he went his thoughts followed him. He had lost his best friend, and was helpless to do anything about it. It went against his nature to dwell on things, but it was hard to get Yugi off his mind.

It probably wouldn't bother him so much if he could actually _do_ something about it, like with the Orichalcos. At least then there had been places to look and something to fight.

Now there wasn't. Oh sure, he had pounded the Pharaoh, but to be honest, that was more surprise than anger. He was angry in jumbled, splayed out like an octopus sort of way that defied direction at one single person. They had all forgotten Yugi, and every single one of them knew that that was unforgivable. In their circle of friends, only Duke Devlin and Rebecca Hawkins had remained untouched by guilt and burdened solely with grief. Joey envied them because most of the time, the grief was the least of it.

The effects of the guilt were clear, especially in the Pharaoh. He had become unbearable pathetic, a shell of his former self since the afternoon when Yugi's absence had been found out. He had always had a way of causing the people around him to feel the same way he did but when it had been boundless confidence, it hadn't seemed so strange. Now that he walked around school in a depressed slump, not just his former friends but everyone avoided him. Girls that had swooned as his feet couldn't come within five feet of him without starting to cry and even the coach excused him more often than not. The Pharaoh never asked for mercy, but everyone seemed to be compelled to give it to him except for those who knew why he was like this. Even Joey had a hard time blaming him when he saw him, but he just had to recall what had happened to Yugi, what the Pharaoh really was, and it became a heckuva lot easier.

But Joey didn't want to remember. That was why he has made basketball his life. Automatic friends, no magic and well . . . picture Yug' being proud of him. He almost went back to his gang, but he couldn't throw his life away like that. Instead, basketball saved his life.

He decided to go to the park and see if any of the guys were there for an afterschool game, until he saw someone he hadn't really expected to see again. Bakura and Tristan were standing right near the basketball court and arguing about something. Then Tristan pushed Bakura down.

"Hey, what's going on here?" he called, running up to them.

Bakura glowered at Tristan. "You are fortunate, both that I am not as I was, and that Joseph should appear. Otherwise, you be in the Shadow Realm now."

With that, the real Bakura was back in control. He turned to Joey and said, "We can bring Yugi back!"

"WHAT?" Joey pulled Bakura to his feet and gave Bakura a bear hug. "This is the best news ever! What could the two of you be fighting about at a time like this?"

Bakura looked away and so Tristan said, "I don't want to bring Yugi back."

"You're joking, aren't you, man? Of course you do!" Joey laughed. "Now things can go back to normal!"

But Tristan was shaking his head as he replied, "Joey, don't you see? Bakura wants to bring him back with a magic staff. Magic killed Yugi! If we keep playing with it, it'll kill the rest of us too! Yugi would want us to leave it alone."

"We can't know that because Yugi's not around to ask! We anyway, we never would have let him get away with that when he was alive, so why should we now that he's dead?"

Tristan growled, "Because we've finally been able to live normal lives, that's why! Why should we risk that now?"

"You're worrying about your own life at a time like this?" Joey raged.

"And yours, and Tea's and everybody else who got involved in Yugi's mess!"

"Man, I don't care! Neither would Tea! That's what our friendship has always been about – having each other's backs! We've faced everything from the Shadow Realm to murdering computer programs to evil soul-sucking cards and you're worried about one little staff?"

Tristan said, "Well, our friendship wasn't very strong, was it? It didn't survive a magical dark spirit who acted like all of our best friends, but ended up sucking the life from the guy who brought us all together."

"Then don't we owe it to Yugi to bring him back?" a voice said from behind Joey.

They turned to see Tea who had tears streaming down her face. Fate had brought the three of them together for a chance to right the wrong they had never meant to cause.

"Tea, how long have you been listening in?" Bakura asked softly.

"Long enough to see Joey's still Joey, but Tristan's changed. I don't really care if you want to bring him back, Tristan. I've changed too, enough to see that friendship isn't everything. Sometimes things happen, things no friendship can survive. But Yugi . . . we never should have forgotten him. If we can make this right, then we have to. I'm not expecting things to go back to normal like Joey is, but I'll kill you myself if you try to stop us from fixing this," Tea said, and she was right. She had changed. Outward she looked much the same, but in her eyes was something Mai-like that was in opposition to everything Tea used to fight for – an acceptance of loneliness backed up by a will of iron.

"Fine," Tristan replied. "I'm out. Whatever happens is on your guys heads."

Joey didn't care. He walked away with Tea and Bakura behind him.

…

The path to Yugi's house was so familiar that even after half a year Joey could have found the way with his eyes closed. Tea practically did, crying silently the entire way there, though Joey could swear they were tears of joy. Soon they were there.

Getting to the Pharaoh was a little more difficult than they had thought it would be though. He wouldn't come to the door, no matter how much they knocked so Joey decided to do things the old fashioned way.

He climbed up the tree near Yugi's window and saw the Pharaoh lying on the bed looking up at the ceiling. The room was in exactly the same condition it had been last time Joey was over, half a year ago. Joey felt a familiar twinge of pity for the Pharaoh, but pushed it away. This wasn't the time for that.

Joey tapped on the window. "Pharaoh! Let me in!"

The Pharaoh looked up and went to open the window.

"What do you want, Joey?"

"You can bring Yugi back!" Joey exclaimed.

The Pharaoh growled. "Do not mock me. If Yugi could be brought back, if that was in my power, then I would have done so long ago." There was a catch in his voice when he finished with, "He's gone."

"No, listen! Bakura's father found a Staff that, in the hands of a pharaoh, can bring people back, so Bakura brought it here! All we need is you!"

The Pharaoh's eyes widened and he had to reach out a hand to steady himself on the desk. His mind seemed to be racing as he said, "Yugi…Where is Bakura?"

"Outside with Tea."

The Pharaoh grabbed the Puzzle and raced downstairs in a blur, flung himself outside, and demanded, "Where is this staff?"

Bakura handed it over. The Pharaoh gripped and stopped to think for a second. Then he said, "Bakura, let me speak to your darker half."

Bakura nodded, and the Thief Lord took over.

The Pharaoh said to him, "Do you think the god cards would be enough to please them?"

Bakura's yami answered, "They might be. You are practically Ausar's brother so I would think he would want to do this for you. Offer up the Puzzle for the release of my people as well."

The Pharaoh nodded. Without a word of explanation to the others, he took the Egyptian god cards and laid them on the head of the couch, one on each couch cushion. He pointed the Staff of Ausar in three directions, at the sun through the window, at himself and at the cards. The Staff gleamed three times and suddenly, Yugi was materializing on the couch while Atem lay unconscious on the ground.

Author note: Don't worry, explanations are forthcoming, and Yami Bakura will probably the one giving them (thanks to InsaneEvilLittleEmmy. ^^ I wasn't so sure what to do with him, but I think he'll be doing the epilogue . . .) . Just not so much next chapter. I think next chapter is my favorite, better than Atem's angst, but I'm also thinking there won't be so much explaining. I'll also considering doing a real sequel, because The Trickery of the Light was more just part two of The Subtle Hunger of the Shadows. We'll see.

Also, I just realized Tristan was last chapter and it was supposed to be Joey. Oops. Sorry about that. ^^;;


End file.
